Colorado Eagles goalie Adam Brown grew up around NHL players, often going with his father Newell, a longtime assistant coach in the league, to practices and games. Being around the locker room exposed Adam Brown early to the kind of daily routine that is needed to be successful at the highest level of the sport, and he s tried to do that in his first pro season with the Eagles. (Steve Stoner)

There were honestly not a lot of positives about the National Hockey League lockout the past few months. Players angry at owners and vise versa, NHLers forced to play overseas to earn paychecks and fans quickly becoming disgruntled at all the shenanigans.

However, for longtime NHL assistant coach Newell Brown, it opened a door he perhaps never thought would open. Several times during the early part of the Colorado Eagles season, he flew in from California to watch his son, Adam, play between the pipes.

Because his schedule has coincided with Adam's for several years now, it was the first time in quite awhile that he got to see him play.

"It's an oddity because I haven't really been able to see him play a lot throughout the years because of my job. He plays hockey, I play hockey and the schedules don't always complement each other," Newell Brown said during intermission of a game Adam started for the Eagles a few weeks prior to Christmas. "That's one of the brighter sides of the lockout, being able to spend a lot of time with him."

The lockout is over, and Newell will now prepare to resume his role with the Vancouver Canucks, but the relationship still goes on strong between he and the rookie netminder, who has eased into getting a majority of the starts for his team.

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"We're talking after every game, and he's always sending me emails and stuff with some keys to focus on pretty much every day," Adam said recently. "He wants me to succeed, but at the same time doesn't want to interfere, wants me to make my own path.

"He's been a huge influence for me."

As a hockey player, Adam Brown has chiseled his own path. The proof is in the fact he became a goaltender, whereas Newell was always a skater -- even playing on the Canadian National Team in 1985.

"I tried to put a few high hard ones past his ear to get him to think otherwise, but he still wanted to do it," Newell said, laughing.

While his dad couldn't convince him to shed the big pads and the goalie mask, Adam did make the most of being able to spend time in NHL rinks around NHL players. Newell has been an assistant for the past 15 years for Anaheim, Chicago, Columbus and Vancouver, teams who have had some Hall of Fame caliber players.

He tried often to bring Adam around to practices, and that seemed to rub off on several different levels.

"He's been around the NHL all his life. Been at the rinks when he was a little kid, playing ball hockey with the NHL players in the gym and stuff like that and as he grew older he got to be a stick boy during an NHL playoff run," Newell said. "I run clinics in the summer with NHL players, so he's gotten a chance to be around guys like that. He's rubbed some elbows with some pretty good players ... so I think by observation he's been able to emulate some of the things they've done that have made them successful."

"I was very fortunate growing up around those type of guys and in that environment, and I think the biggest thing that I picked up is what you have to do day in and day out in order to make it to that level," Adam added. "It doesn't just happen by chance. Guys put in the work every day, they do everything to prepare for games, mentally focus, make sure they're ready to go off the ice, practice as hard as possible every day. All those things factor into them making the jump to the highest level there is."

Even as recent as last year, Adam said he was able to practice with the Canucks during the playoffs, filling in at goal for those scratched players to still get some work in.

That extra work and exposure may have helped him get his way on to the Eagles, but since late November the Yorba Linda, Calif., native has emerged as a legitimate No. 1 goalie. He ranks eighth in the ECHL in goals-against average (tied with two other rookies at 2.54), ranks 13th in save percentage (.911) and has nine wins -- equaling teammate Kyle Jones.

Brown has been especially effective since getting regular play. At the end of November, he carried a .883 save percentage and a 3.03 GAA in just five games; he has played in 12 contests the past two months (10 starts).

At the time when his play was more sporadic, Newell simply told him the same things he tells a lot of the NHL rookies he runs across: you've got to earn your way.

"It happens all the time in every level, and you just have to think about the things that you can control," he said. "You can control work ethic, attitude and execution every day, and if you control those things, you're going to get better. When your name is called you're going to have a chance to get out there and play your best game."It seems Adam didn't let any of that advice go over his head.